In the prior art the process of intraocular lens (IOL) surgery is a cumbersome process for the surgeon. The classical process according to the prior art may involve four steps, namely i) diagnosis, ii) pre-surgery preparation, iii) surgery preparation, iv) lens removal and implantation, and finally v) surgery finalisation. The whole process is outlined in somewhat more detail in the following.
A first step involves the diagnosis of the eye to be treated. Usually the geometry of an eye (length, chamber depth, lens thickness, etc.) is determined using a device like an IOL Master from Zeiss. It may further include a topometry measurement to measure the corneal surface of the eye. Moreover, it may include the use of a refractometer to determine the visual performance of the eye. This diagnostic data is used to define the IOL type and IOL geometry that should be implanted.
A second step consists of the pre-surgery preparation. This means the preparatory work done by the surgeon to “plan” the surgery, such as “where to cut”, etc. This may include e.g. the marking of the reference vertical and horizontal axes on the eye, typically by a pen. Moreover, it may involve the graphical marking of a hardcopy of a diagnostic image using a pen.
A third step consists of the surgery preparation. This involves e.g. anesthesia, desinfection and lid speculum in the eye. If the surgery involves a toric IOL, this also involves the marking of the astigmatism axis with marking pen or special axis marker (Mendez Ring) for later final IOL orientation. The third step further includes the preparation of incisions for instruments and for implanting the lens. Finally a viscoelastica is injected to the eye to ensure a smooth lens implantation.
A fourth step includes the actual surgical steps, such as capsulorhexis, hydrodissection, phacoemulsification, and of course then the lens implantation.
A fifth step of the whole procedure is the surgery finalisation, which may e.g. involve the alignment of the IOL, for toric IOLs the angular positioning of the IOL, and finally the removal of the viscoelastica.
The whole procedure is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1. It should be noted that these steps, especially the pre-surgery preparation and the surgery preparation are carried out by the surgeon manually without any assistance by computerised tools. E.G. the marking of the axis of the eye involves setting marks by a pen on the actual eye, which is a very tedious work for the surgeon. Moreover, the marks may become fuzzy or may disappear over time, which may negatively affect the performance and accuracy of the surgery.
During the actual surgery the surgeon only has the real-time image as he can see it through the surgical microscope, without any further indications which may assist him in performing the surgery.
It is therefore desirable to improve the whole process by providing the surgeon with a tool which can assist him in executing the aforementioned steps, in particular assisting him with the planning and also the execution of the surgery.